Perdido 03

Monday, April 29, 2013

Fred Dicker: Shelly Silver Will Follow Tisch And Endorse Thompson

While Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has yet to endorse a candidate
for mayor, insiders predict he will follow Board of Regents Chancellor
Merryl Tisch and back former city Comptroller Bill Thompson, who lost
narrowly to Mayor Bloomberg four years ago.

Silver and Tisch are
longtime friends and political allies and many on the inside say Tisch
wouldn’t have endorsed Thompson last week without Silver’s approval.

“Shelly
backing Billy, the only black in the race, would win him a lot of
points with the African-Americans in the Assembly, who help keep him as
speaker,’’ said a longtime Thompson backer.

I'm less interested in Silver's potential backing of Thompson than I am of Shelly's friendship and political alliance with Merryl Tisch.

There's little doubt that Tisch and NYSED Commissioner King have the political backing and support of Governor Cuomo as they seek to fire tens of thousands of teachers via APPR and Common Core over the next few years.